


New Traditions

by foldedchip



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Canon Universe, Children, Dark Magic, Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 12:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24969619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foldedchip/pseuds/foldedchip
Summary: Chant it with me: "WE NEED MORE BABY PEP BUT CONTENT"
Relationships: Marceline & Peppermint Butler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	New Traditions

**Author's Note:**

> You KNOW Marceline and Pep But would be those people who love Halloween, and one of them is a child now? *This is Halloween song intensifies* THEY GOTTA TRICK-OR-GREAT TOGETHER!

When the leaves melted into warm yellows and reds, and the wind brought with it a chill, Marceline hung stuffed bats on her ceiling. She untangled orange and black lights and strung them around her porch. When the signs of autumn flittered over, Marceline the Vampire Queen prepared for Halloween.  
  
Being a vampire, Marceline was fond of spooky things. She never left home these days without smearing a neat black lipstick onto her lips, and she made use of her bat form when playing with her young friend Peppermint. Ever since Bonnie had decided to keep him around, Marceline spent less time sulking in her cave and more time enjoying the company of the new little prince of the Candy Kingdom.  
  
And Pep was weird. He adored superstition and the tomes of dark magic spells that his adult self had left behind. He skimmed picture books and encyclopedias describing monsters and vampires, and Bubblegum found that he had an appetite for gothic literature. When she read to him at night, Poe was his favorite, he gobbled up the rich language like candy, delectable stories sodden and saturated with darkness. Well, to him, anyway. Bubblegum preferred less “overly-dramatic goth grit”.  
  
In the gloom of a typical sleepless night, Bubblegum once plodded to his bedroom to check on Peppermint, only to find lit candles and what she could have sworn was someone with a white hat and animal skull face. She glimpsed him for but a split second before swinging the door open and sending several half-finished Latin worksheets fluttering away. She’d never taught  
him Latin.  
  
So, this year, when the leaves changed and the wind brought with it a chill, Marceline headed over to visit Pep once preschool let out.  
  
The vampire leaned against the wall of the school hallway. Along the surface ran paper hand cutouts of bats and crayon-scribbled coloring sheets of witches and black cats. Marceline wondered if another child would ask to feel the spikes on her jacket today. With a smile, she figured that such a thing would probably make her day.  
  
But there he was! The classroom door swung open and small children bounded into the hallway. Marceline caught a flash of red, and the zippers of a little backpack jingled as Pep trotted over with a bright smile on his face.  
  
“Hi, Marcy!” He raised his arms and she dropped down to his level and picked him up. Nothing strange about a small child made of candy settling into the lap of a floating 21-year-old creature.  
  
“Hello, monster! How was school?” She asked, the tips of her sharp canines twinkling as she grinned.  
  
Pep shook his backpack off of his shoulders and Marceline lowered it to the ground. “Really good! We made ghosts out of coffee filters!”  
  
She pulled a smile, “That’s awesome, doodlebug! I brought you something…”  
  
Black fingernails against pale skin reached into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out a small bag of sprinkled, bat-shaped cookies.  
  
The boy clawed at the bag and concealed it with his small hands. “Careful! Don’t show the other kids…”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
His gaze flickered over to the other candy children, “I don’t care for them.”  
  
Marceline cackled and then nodded, “I feel you. We can eat them on our way home. Sound good?”  
  
Hopping out of her arms and uttering “descensus tardi” to break his fall, Pep took the vampire’s hand and led her to the door. “Sounds great! We can arrange the Halloween festivities on the way...”  
  
Marceline let Pep pull her along like the wind on a falling leaf, as she suddenly found it to be more difficult to think straight.  
  
After all, following a 1,000 years of celebrating Halloween and her own weird spookiness all alone, she finally had someone to share it with. A small someone, who was just as weird and spooky as she was.  
  
And something told her that her little festivities were about to get all the more special.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Have a great day!


End file.
